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Oh I do like to be beside the seaside…! Oh I do like to be beside the sea!!

Yesterday I got to go to Southend-on-Sea for an editorial for Ballad Of Magazine. Going to such fun locations is such a plus in this industry, it puts the whole team in a good mood which in turn creatives positive energy making the days work a success and fun!!

The story we was shooting is based on the theme of Sugar & Spice – taking things from your childhood memories to influence and inform the images. We got to shoot two lovely models, Stephanie & Lucy, and here’s what I did with them..!

Stephanie had the most gorgeous skin. I used plenty of strobe cream on her high points for extra dewiness and glow. For both of our girls I created a similar looks with slight variances. I made Stephanie’s brows more defined and used less colour on her eyes and more bronzer. I used a mattifying moisturiser by Elemis (smells lovely and lemon-y!) due to the heat – I didn’t want the girls skin getting to oily/slippery under the intense heat we’ve been having lately. I used MAC full coverage as a base and buffed it in with Real Technique’s Expert face Brush – one of my favourite brushes!

Here’s Lucy’s first look. Lucy had such long eyelashes – just look at those shadows they are creating! She also had quite untamed eyebrows which I love so I decided not to fill them in but to gel them into place and build up a stronger eye. I also used full coverage by MAC as Lucy’s base matching to her natural colour. Some contouring and moisturised nude lips and our beauties were good to go!

And one of the girls together… I used the dark lip colour on Lucy in some of the looks for some variance in the final images. Note to self, I NEED that fluffy white jumper!!

All in all a great shoot once again with a great team and a great location. Here’s a few more behind the scenes images I snapped throughout the day!

All images were shot with film – I can’t wait to share once the magazine comes out in print!

In other news, I just purchased This Works ‘In Transit Close Up’ which claims to be a moisturiser-come-primer which I can’t wait to use on my next shoot – I may possibly write a quick review of it once I’ve decided if it will make my kit or not! Also, I have FINALLY found my perfect blue nail varnish – I love blue nails, and this, Blueberry by Barry M, is now my ultimate staple. With it’s gel formula is also super shiny and long lasting!

So I’ve just got some images back from an amazing editorial shoot I did a few months back which I’m now allowed to share!

The shoot took place in a really cool studio in East London called provision – really loved that place, must keep it in mind for future projects!

So our lovely model for the day was Hannah from Storm who can be seen here with some very minimal natural make up on by me:

The brief was very Alexander McQueen inspired. A lot of natural decay & taxidermy. Our model was to have a lot of contouring, and her eyebrows blocked out. Fun!

Here’s some behind the scenes I snapped whilst we were getting down to business:

And here was my make up station. A nice big huge space for my kit with the biggest mirror, love! I would like to point out that this was post-make up application and not beforehand, i’m not THAT messy ha.

For eyebrow blocking there’s a few methods one can use to create an illusion of a brow-less face. One way, which was the first way I learned, is to use wax. Essentially it involves using your thumb and a lot of pressure to smooth the wax over the brow to seal the hairs in place. The second and most favoured method is to use Pritt Stick! For this, you basically want to slide one layer of pritt stick over the brow, and then use a spatular and dig a chunk out of the glue stick to smooth over the brow once the first layer has dried. As with both methods it’s then a case of building the concealer up in layers and powdering in between for extra hold.

Hannah previously had a bad experience with the pritt stick method when another MUA did not remove it all after the job therefore she was not so keen on having them removed that way, luckily I brought with me both my glue AND wax!

The wax version is a little harder to work with however with a sharp eye I managed to get rid of those brows and was able to jump in at any point to smooth anything over. The wax I use is by Kryolan which can be found online or at Charles Fox in Covent Garden, London.

As this shoot was a few months ago, I can’t fully remember all of the products I used but I can definitely remember a few..

For Hannah’s complexion I used MAC’s Full Coverage in a blend of two shades. For all of you who have used full coverage before and know how thick it i, fear not – just use less and mix it with some Strobe cream. It gives a really nice coverage to skin and has that dewy effect at the same time owing to the strobe cream. I use this a lot on my models and it has a really great staying power. For Hannah’s eye contouring I used a mix of medium and dark browns from my MAC palette and I know Satin Taupe was definitely used A LOT. For contouring I used Bourjois Delice de Poudre Bronzing Powder in shade 52.

Without further ado, here are a selection of the final images that I personally love.

What do you think? Probably not an everyday look for the office but I love the flow of the images, the styling and the dramatics of the props.